Translation Image of the Week

We were delighted when we spotted this simple stone plaque on a downtown Amsterdam plaza a few weeks ago while in town for a conference. We just have to add that every single Dutch person we met was completely multilingual. It's no surprise that many of the great translators we know are Dutch. By contrast, try ordering a coffee in three languages (excluding German) in Vienna and see what happens (answer: you probably won't get your coffee). Here's to images with words being more powerful than words alone.

Twin Translations Meets Twin Translations

Just when we thought that our business name, Twin Translations, was quite original and unique, we met....translating twins who had also chosen Twin Translations as their business name. Smart girls! We had the pleasure of meeting Melanie and Nicole Pieringer at the University of Granz (Institute of Translation Studies) in Austria, where Judy gave her Entrepreneurial Linguist workshop. The charming twins, in their first year of their translation degree after having finished their degrees in English at the University of Salzburg, came up with the name Twin Translations for a school project and even had tri-fold brochures made. Impressive job, Melanie and Nicole. We hit it off at the workshop on the hottest day of the year (see picture). Because of the 90-degree heat (and no A/C), the twins were smart enough to wear swimwear under their clothes (if Judy hadn't presented, she would have done that, too). Since our Twin Translations company has been around a lot longer and we own the domain name, Melanie and Nicole have graciously agreed to think of a different business name. We appreciate it -- we'll help brainstorm. Here's to translating twins and best of luck to Melanie and Nicole!

Blog Redesign

After almost two years of blogging here at Translation Times, we decided it was time for a facelift (no Botox required). We looked at many other blogs, and especially liked Sarah Dillon's clean, beautiful layout with all the Web 2.0 elements. Our IT guru Thomas Gruber did a fantastic resdesign, added some categories to the top navigation for easy access to the topics we write about the most, and added some new elements. We are very happy with the result. Others seem to agree, as Kwintessential just included us in the Top 10 Translator Blogs list, which mentioned that they liked our brand-new layout. Thanks for the honor. What do our readers think? Do you like the new layout?

Flash Player Security Warning

Our IT superhero, Thomas Gruber, would like all our readers to know about this serious Flash Player security issue. He equals it to the worst-case scenario (think BP oil spill). He's a pretty laid-back guy, so this is quite serious. It should only take you a few minutes. Basically, Adobe just came out with a list of problems, 29 in total, that allow code to install viruses (don't ask us about the techie details on this). There have already been reports that some not-so-nice people are  cheerfully taking advantage of this, and Adobe highly recommends getting the newest version of Adobe Flash Player and Adobe AIR.

Here is how to fix this:

Adobe Flash Player

Adobe recommends all users of Adobe Flash Player 10.0.45.2 and earlier versions upgrade to the newest version 10.1.53.64 by downloading it from the Adobe Flash Player Download Center or by using the auto-update mechanism within the product when prompted.

For users who cannot update to Flash Player 10.1.53.64, Adobe has developed a patched version of Flash Player 9, Flash Player 9.0.277.0, which can be downloaded from the following link.

Adobe AIR

Adobe recommends all users of Adobe AIR 1.5.3.9130 and earlier versions update to the newest version 2.0.2.12610 by downloading it from the Adobe AIR Download Center.

Link: Entrepreneurial Linguist Book Review

We know, we know: it's been quiet on the Translation Times front the last week or so. That's because we have both been to four countries (Netherlands, Germany, Czech Republic, Austria), where Judy had the chance to speak at five conferences. It's been an exciting and busy June thus far! A conference report is coming up. In the meantime, we wanted to share a quick link to Sarah Dillon's fabulous There's something about translation blog, where she was kind enough to review our Entrepreneurial Linguist book. Thanks, Sarah! We highly recommend her beautifully designed blog, so be sure to add it to your RSS feed.

Of Peanuts and Monkeys

Thanks to Twitter, we just heard about a like-minded movement/blog that is encouraging all linguists to stop working for, well, peanuts. We couldn't agree more: we could have written the blog ourselves! The tone of the blog is funny and straightforward: if you think you are getting paid too little, stop accepting those jobs. Of course, the realities of the marketplace are complex and challenging, and individual situations vary greatly. However, this is a message we cannot hear often enough: let's professionalize our profession by charging adequate and fair rates for our highly specialized services, by working with our colleagues, and by refusing to work under conditions that do not do our expertise and education justice.

The No Peanuts Statement of Principles includes:

1. Don't lower your rates. Just don't do it.
2. Stop panicking. There is enough work for all of us. And yes: there is enough work at livable rates, too.
   
3. Take charge of the vendor/client relationship.
4. Abusive working conditions? Don't take the job -- you run your own business, after all!
5. Use online resources to research your potential clients.
6. Boycott abusive clients.
   

We are grateful for the No Peanuts movement for keeping the ball rolling -- thank you! Check out the blog and endorse the movement.

Disposable E-Mail Addresses

Our almost-weekly technology tip comes, as always, from our IT superhero Thomas Gruber. Today's topic is so-called disposable e-mail addresses. There are a variety of uses for them, including using them to get free stuff online, such as e-books or free software. While we love taking advantage of free stuff, and thank the many people who make the products available, we are increasingly weary of giving our business e-mail addresses. One never knows if our e-mail addresses could be sold or otherwise used in ways we don't approve of. Plus, spam messages are likely to increase when downloading freeware, and we don't read spam -- we read books (clever, but it's not really our own line). One way around this is to simply get a free e-mail address (Gmail, Yahoo, etc.) and use that one for non-essential messages. The better option is to get a disposable e-mail address, which are is only valid for a short period of time. Does it sound too good to be true? It's not. Thomas recommends 10-Minute Mail, Meltmail, and the hilariously titled SpamGourmet.

Too Many Open Browser Tabs = Bad

Today's technology tip comes, as always, from our IT superhero Thomas Gruber, who has long been on both our cases about having too many broswer tabs open (we use Firefox). Judy is especially guilty of this. Thomas just sent us information that too many open tabs, in addition to slowing down your processes and loading times, could also leave one very vulnerable to phishing attacks (hackers trying to mine one's confidential data by posing as legitimiate websiste, including banks). This might finally be incentive enough for Judy to start closing tabs when she doesn't use the page and just open it again as needed. Read this page for a lot of important information about this subject, but it's a bit techie even for technology lovers like us. The bottom line: close the tabs of your browser to ensure online safety.

Top 100 Language Blogs

We are delighted that some of our wonderful colleagues have decided to nominate Translation Times as one of the Top 100 Language Blogs. The list is compiled by Lexiophiles, and it's a big honor to even be considered. There are four different categories, and Translation Times is listed in the Translation Professionals section. While there are hundreds of fantastic blogs to vote for, many of which are written by our talented linguist-friends around the world, we'd love to have your vote if you really like our blog. We've already cast our vote for our favorite blog -- and no, it wasn't ours. Visit the site to vote.

One-Day Conference: Utrecht, June 4

Who says there is no professional development in the summer? Between May and August, many regional and national associations in both Europe and the U.S. are hosting great conferences and seminars. We wanted to mention one in particular, which is quite unique: it is organized without the help of any translator and interpreter association, and it's the brainchild of two Dutch translators, Annie Tadema and Astrid van der Weert, who are putting on the entire event by themselves. The location is impressive, too: the Centraal Museum in Utrecht, the Netherlands (see picture). Unfortunately, the Dutch associaton of translators and interpreters isn't very active, which has resulted in a lack of professional development activities for Dutch linguists. We are delighted that Astrid and Annie have decided to fill that void, and we are grateful that they have decided to invite Judy to speak at the event. Now they just need some help spreading the word Please visit the conference site and tell your friends!